PSA: Google to free G Suite users: Pay up or lose your account

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#2914847 17-May-2022 09:43

Fairly roundabout way of doing things, but I'm glad we got what we wanted in the end. I guess they succeeded in making their free users aware of other paid options e.g. Office365

I didn't play chicken, I signed up to their discounted Workspace plan for my three user domain. The process of switching to a non-business legacy account was very smooth - can be accomplished through a chatbot on the admin portal.

Edit: Slight technicality, I'm still on a Workspace plan, but won't be charged for it, and they may remove business-level support in future. This is different being on a non-business legacy plan. For one, it appears I get 30GB of storage per user rather than 15GB

josephhinvest

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#2914850 17-May-2022 09:52

I'm not sure what I'm missing, I don't see any way to change my account.... am I overlooking something or perhaps I'm already sorted somehow?

Cheers,
Joseph

edit: solved in my reply to self below

GV27

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#2914851 17-May-2022 09:52

So does this give us domain name management and user account management? I like being able to only ever turn on logins by forcing 2FA on accounts with no 2FA set up (just set it up and then revoke it when I need it).

josephhinvest

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#2914857 17-May-2022 09:57

josephhinvest: I'm not sure what I'm missing, I don't see any way to change my account.... am I overlooking something or perhaps I'm already sorted somehow?

Cheers,
Joseph

Replying to myself incase it helps anyone else.... the way is to click "Learn More" which takes you to the "Upgrade from G Suite legacy free edition" and the subsequent "What if I use G Suite legacy free edition for personal use?".

I clicked through and confirmed it was for personal use and it's sorted.
Good result, glad I just waited and waited!

Cheers,
Joseph

mdf

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#2914875 17-May-2022 10:41

Wow, pleasantly surprised at this outcome! Last weekend I was definitely hovering over the cheap upgrade option, so pleased I held my nerve.

I do wonder about the last minute nature of the "oh, alright then, we'll just keep the status quo". Do we think there is some kind of technical or commercial imperative stopping gmail-gmail account transitions? I would have been stoked with an option that let me merge/transition my workspace account to a personal @gmail account.

While I can now safely kick the can down the road for a bit, it feels prudent to start using my @gmail account as a primary account (especially for less transferable things like google play purchases) with the workspace one forwarding to that rather than vice versa (which is my status quo). Anyone else planning similar?

Stu

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#2914877 17-May-2022 10:43

If only you could downgrade from a paid plan to the free option when your domain is no longer used for (a now retired) business.

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#2914879 17-May-2022 10:46

mdf:

Wow, pleasantly surprised at this outcome! Last weekend I was definitely hovering over the cheap upgrade option, so pleased I held my nerve.

I do wonder about the last minute nature of the "oh, alright then, we'll just keep the status quo". Do we think there is some kind of technical or commercial imperative stopping gmail-gmail account transitions? I would have been stoked with an option that let me merge/transition my workspace account to a personal @gmail account.

While I can now safely kick the can down the road for a bit, it feels prudent to start using my @gmail account as a primary account (especially for less transferable things like google play purchases) with the workspace one forwarding to that rather than vice versa (which is my status quo). Anyone else planning similar?

I made a new gmail that is used for youtube subscriptions only. I'd been exiting google (photos, drive etc) and email was the last piece of the puzzle, used this as a prompt to move to fastmail.

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mdf

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#2914881 17-May-2022 10:52

davidcole:

I made a new gmail that is used for youtube subscriptions only. I'd been exiting google (photos, drive etc) and email was the last piece of the puzzle, used this as a prompt to move to fastmail.

I'd love to hear your thoughts/reviews on Fastmail - this was at the top of my shortlist for potential replacement services. I'll always need a gmail account (Android phone, Youtube Red, Google Families - currently also photos and drive) but would seriously consider moving email, calendar and contacts off to something that has less sticky lock in. If I can impose, maybe another thread or GZ review? I've gotten _really_ used to to Gmail's auto sorting in to the tabbed filters and it's a pretty integral part of my workflow now, plus archiving into a big heap and using search to retrieve anything I'm looking for rather than manually filing/labelling. I worry a shift will be pretty jarring.

If I can also ask, what did you replace Google Photos with?

davidcole

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#2914886 17-May-2022 10:59

mdf:

davidcole:

I made a new gmail that is used for youtube subscriptions only. I'd been exiting google (photos, drive etc) and email was the last piece of the puzzle, used this as a prompt to move to fastmail.

I'd love to hear your thoughts/reviews on Fastmail - this was at the top of my shortlist for potential replacement services. I'll always need a gmail account (Android phone, Youtube Red, Google Families - currently also photos and drive) but would seriously consider moving email, calendar and contacts off to something that has less sticky lock in. If I can impose, maybe another thread or GZ review? I've gotten _really_ used to to Gmail's auto sorting in to the tabbed filters and it's a pretty integral part of my workflow now, plus archiving into a big heap and using search to retrieve anything I'm looking for rather than manually filing/labelling. I worry a shift will be pretty jarring.

If I can also ask, what did you replace Google Photos with?

Seems ok. Though my wife might be having problems with their contacts/phone contacts. I haven't hosed it yet and started again and he phone is alternating between icloud and fastmail carddav. But things are resolving and then not resolving in a day. But I wnat to kill all her icloud contacts and fastmail and reload from good set of vcf. Myself I use nextcloud for mine, but that doesn't show up in the fastmail browser interface that she uses so not an option.

That grizzle aside, it seems fine. You do get support (compared ot gmail - lol), it is a little slow, but at least it's there. WE migrated froma bunch of accounts on domain to 2x $6 @ 30 gb accounts and 1 basic which has 2gb and no imap for my son.

For photos, I'd mostly moved to photoprism and plex so all is local. I have no real need to share...and if I do, I'll cross that bridge.....I could probably do it via nextcloud as that's exposed to teh internet.

kobiak

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#2914887 17-May-2022 11:04

josephhinvest:

Replying to myself incase it helps anyone else.... the way is to click "Learn More" which takes you to the "Upgrade from G Suite legacy free edition" and the subsequent "What if I use G Suite legacy free edition for personal use?".

I clicked through and confirmed it was for personal use and it's sorted.
Good result, glad I just waited and waited!

Cheers,
Joseph

Perfect. I just did the same. Hopefully nothing else is required.

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Bananabob

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#2914889 17-May-2022 11:07

mdf:

I'd love to hear your thoughts/reviews on Fastmail

I switched to Fastmail. I don't trust Google any more after this debacle. I find Fastmail good. The website is, IMHO, better than Gmail. I use Thunderbird at the desktop for emails and Fastmail integrates very well. There is an android app they provide for emails on phones. I use K9-Mail because I have accounts elsewhere and would like to check all in the one app. Fastmail provide excellent help pages and transfer of emails and calendar was smooth. You need to install DAVx5 to sync your mail etc on your android phone.

I have a promo discount code if anyone would like it.

allan

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#2914979 17-May-2022 11:57

josephhinvest:
josephhinvest: I'm not sure what I'm missing, I don't see any way to change my account.... am I overlooking something or perhaps I'm already sorted somehow?

Cheers,
Joseph

Replying to myself incase it helps anyone else.... the way is to click "Learn More" which takes you to the "Upgrade from G Suite legacy free edition" and the subsequent "What if I use G Suite legacy free edition for personal use?".

I clicked through and confirmed it was for personal use and it's sorted.
Good result, glad I just waited and waited!

Cheers,
Joseph

Thanks Joseph, not sure I would have found that unaided.

gzt

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#2915046 17-May-2022 12:53

That worked for me today. Specifically logged in as admin and this article:

https://support.google.com/a/answer/60217

contains this link with option to continue with free:

https://admin.google.com/?action_id=SE_SELF_TRANSITION&utm_source=helpcenter

It says Google may remove "business" functionality in future so maybe consider you're still on notice although it's not specific. Domains are specifically supported.

gzt

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#2915047 17-May-2022 12:57

Btw if you already switched to paid - a support request can move you back to free.

Baboon

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#2915095 17-May-2022 14:01

I'm unimpressed with today's reveal that they're simply offering the option to keep your legacy Workspace account, as-is. I've already moved to Fastmail, and frankly I'd prefer if I just got my old legacy Workspace account transitioned to a Gmail account.

Plus I moved several friends, family, and clients off of their legacy accounts to paid options elsewhere or to paid Workspace (I was pretty big about signing them up back in the day, realising a good deal when I saw it). And it turns out today… I didn't have to and they didn't have to pay for emailing hosting after all. What the heck Google?

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